UK riots: a BBC radio car was torched in Salford. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

A BBC radio car was set on fire in Salford on Tuesday night as broadcasters and other media organisations struggled to keep up with the looting and disorder spreading across the Midlands, the north-west and the west of England.

The dangers of covering such a fast-moving, volatile and dangerous story were underlined once again when the BBC Radio Manchester car and another vehicle belonging to a reporter were set on fire in Salford, according to the corporation.

Both the BBC and Sky News used pictures from Sangat TV, a satellite and web TV channel set up by a Sikh charity, for pictures of events in Birmingham last night, where dozens of police fought with several hundred looters.

The BBC has studios and a regional newsroom in the Mailbox building in Birmingham city centre where its nightly local news programme Midlands Today is filmed.

In Salford, where violence broke out in the early evening on Tuesday, Sky News and the BBC appeared for several hours to rely to a large extent on content provided by members of the public, mainly footage taken on mobile phones.

Kevin Bakhurst, the controller of the BBC News channel, defended its coverage on Twitter last night after being challenged about the apparent lack of cameras on the streets.

He added that many BBC staff were on holiday and a good number of journalists were in London, which was relatively quiet on Tuesday following three consecutive nights of rioting.

"It's august" Bakhurst wrote on Twitter. "Some of team in London; and it's difficult but yes i'm frustrated (and in newsroom making it clear)."

The BBC was not the only media organisation caught out by the relatively quiet night in London as trouble flared in areas including Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Gloucester, Bristol, Leicester and Nottingham.

However, while newspapers can react more quickly by dispatching reporters to cover the disorder, broadcasters face extra logistical problems in getting camera crews and satellite trucks to the trouble spots.

The BBC is also under extra scrutiny in the north-west as it recently began moving staff into in its much-heralded new broadcasting facility in Salford, MediaCityUK, which will eventually house several departments including parts of Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport and BBC Children's.

Bakhurst also used Twitter to say the lack of pictures from Salford in the late evening on Tuesday was partly due to the fact BBC reporters were "out newsgathering – having done a live hit earlier". Bakhurst added: "though i [sic] would like some pictures on soonish!!".

Sky News said it had two satellite trucks and two reporters in Manchester and one of each in Birmingham. The broadcaster added the Sangat TV coverage was used principally to cover the disorder in Wolverhampton.

A BBC spokesman said: "We had a number of people on the ground bringing the latest developments in this fast-moving story to our audiences. As with any story of this kind, we also had to consider the protection of our staff and equipment as well as reporting the story as it unfolded. Events in Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham last night were covered with live pictures. We had appropriately trained teams out in all three places with live reports from BBC Birmingham, BBC Manchester, BBC Nottingham, 5 Live, and of course the News Channel."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook